My attempt to persuade folks to get vaccinated...

Underneath the refusal to get vaccinated against a world wide pandemic is a need to belong, it seems to me.  

I think there are two groups of the vaccine refusals - the New Age/holistic healing/energy healing/nutrition and essential oils/superior immune system/we are superior to allopathic medicine which is just a bunch of pill pushers Group - and the the Right Wing/Fundamentalist Christian/Jesus will protect us/tough guy & gal/we hate the government/nobody tells me what to do Group.  

 

And the real problem for people in both groups is that to take vaccines is to turn their back on their group, to lose their identity as evolutionarily superior or tougher than thou people - and most of all to no longer belong to their tribe.  

 

But, sorry to say, there are just some things that can’t be stopped without vaccines. 

If the only person at risk would be the one who chooses not to vaccinate, then their fate is on their heads. But of course others breathe their air and some of them could be very vulnerable. And some of those will travel to where the unvaccinated person will never see, who are perhaps very vulnerable.  

To my New Age unvaccinated friends, I understand how hard it is to dedicate your life to alternative holistic healing and then confront a world wide virus that can pulverize that approach. Broken bones need splints. Polio needs vaccines. The old graveyards are filled with small gravestones of young children that died of terrible communicable diseases who were killed before the vaccines were available. 

 

COVID with its variants need vaccines. They have been proven safe by over 200,000,000 vaccinated Americans as a test sample. The complications are very rare. I wish this was just about respecting each other’s choices, but it’s like telling people to respect someone who chooses to run red lights. Others are impacted. Choosing to vaccinate for some seems like a repudiation of a lifetime’s philosophy. But it’s not. I am in awe of the benefits of at least some of the miracles of modern science and this vaccine is one of those miracles, it seems to me.  

 

Heart surgery saved my life.  That was an amazing miracle done by a masterful magician who had dedicated his life to that particular scientific knowledge and skill.  All I can say is thank you, and I will also say that allopathic medicine has a lot of knowledge and magic in it and I hope people do not throw out the baby with the bathwater.  I welcome the "alternative" healings, and pursue a very healthy immune system, and am grateful for the New Age modalities.  But there are places for each, and protecting against deadly pandemics is a place for vaccines.

 

To my Right Wing no-government-is-going-to-tell-me-what-to-do friends, it is harder for me to get inside your heads, as your world view is further removed than mine.  But I think it has something to do with what a dear friend of mine calls "fierce independence"  - pride in independence, a pride in not needing any help from anywhere, a pride in a kind of hyper masculinity and toughness that says who cares if I get it, I'm tough and I will be tougher than the virus.  OK.  Maybe. Maybe not.

 

But...you don't run stoplights, even though the government tells you not to - and you don't drive drunk, even though the government tells you not to - and you obey the police if pulled over for a traffic stop, even though the government tells you to - and you accept Social Security, and Medicare if you qualify, and welcome firefighters, and the Army Navy Marines Air Force Interstate Highways Libraries Air Traffic control Banking regulations, etc- even though they are government run entities.

 

And to those who think Jesus will protect them from the virus, I don't think that is what Jesus does.  I think Jesus loves you deeply and weeps when you fall short of his teachings and example, and weeps when you suffer, and weeps if you get COVID-19 but I don't think he is in the job of keeping you from sicknesses, I think his job is empathy and helping with healing.  

 

That's about the best I can do to try to help those who refuse vaccinations against a world wide pandemic to open to becoming vaccinated. 

 

One of my biggest puzzlements is what are the motivations?  My motivation in asking people to get vaccinated is to help keep them healthy, to keep their vulnerable loved ones healthy, and to keep those they will never meet but who could get the virus because of them healthy. And biggest of all to stop this terrible painful disease and make it go away like polio, smallpox, etc. all went away before it thanks to vaccines.

 

But what are the motivations of the New Agers who try to keep people from getting vaccinated?  To prove that allopathic medicine is a fraud?  It seems that the drastic drop in hospitalizations and deaths after the Federal Government created a nationwide vaccination program proves that the vaccines actually do work.  So, I am baffled.

 

And what are the motivations of the tougher-than-thou folks?  To prove how tough they are? to prove that they don't need any help from anybody?  Really?  No thought about what happens to others?

 

I guess I can understand the fundamentalist motivation, to prove to themselves and the world that Jesus loves them and will protect them.  Oh well.  America is filled with gravestones of the Faithful.

 

Please get vaccinated.  Please don't try to convince others not to get vaccinated.

 

I have done my best to be convincing.  I don't have anything else I can think of to say.

Authoritarianism 101

The former guy taught Americans what vast numbers around the world have known for a very long time - how to set up an authoritarian rule:

Tell a big lie - over and over and over and over and over and over...

Attack all investigations of facts and truth

Enforce adherence to the big lie by punishing those who speak the truth.

Control the news

Use and threaten violence repeatedly

Whatever you are guilty of, accuse the opposition of the same thing.

Flood the mental zone with repeated continual chaos.

Infiltrate democratic, military, law-enforcement, and judiciary with fellow authoritarians.

Sadly, we in the United States are living through this now. This is not some arcane study of Germany and Russia. We live in an age of attempted fascist take over.

Truth and goodness will prevail. Time for my conservative friends to get sick and tired of the Trump show and turn away.

I don’t know if the former guy just knew all of this, or just does it instinctively based on decades of corruption and domination in his crooked businesses, or was just taking directions from his Master, Vladimir Putin.  But he has taught us all about Authoritarianism.

Did I mention violence? Threats of violence?  Celebrating violence? Running from violence right after you tell your Cult – you and him go fight…for me…

Meanwhile, the Biden Administration is doing its best to provide a helpful and effective government even in the face of cult led fervid opposition.  Thankfully.

Proof that the vaccines work

I find it distressing that so many in the Trump Cult refuse to get vaccines and see this most obvious health protection as an imposition of tyrannical authority.  

This is certainly the goal of years of Russian propaganda designed to destroy American acceptance of science.  It seems to be the goal of some on Fox News and the strange world of the Right Wing Paranoia Media Bubble.  And it seems to be what the Trump Cult thinks their revered leader is telling them, even though the Former Guy actually was vaccinated just before leaving office.

I think I have some dear friends that are not getting the vaccine, and perhaps a few of them have what they believe to be legitimate medical reasons for their decision.  But, here is the definitive proof that the vaccines work.  Prior to the Biden presidency the COVID-19 deaths were skyrocketing.  After Biden took office and directed a nationwide vaccination program, the deaths plummeted.  The vaccines work.  They are not dangerous.  They stop COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.  And, tragically, they are on the rise again as those who refuse vaccines are going to hospitals and dying.

Here is the chart:

 

I want the Trump Cult to wake up and see that they have been fooled by a con man, I don't want them to just kill themselves off, although when they spread the disease it goes everywhere and endangers all of us, and they are giving the virus more and more time to develop more deadly variants.

Please get vaccinated.  It is actually very easy to do.

Kremlin backed the “Mentally Unstable and Unbalanced” Trump

The Guardian just broke a story that formally reveals two things that we have known since 2016.

First, the Kremlin actively and aggressively supported Trump for president in 2016.

“A report prepared by Putin’s expert department recommended Moscow use “all possible force” to ensure a Trump victory….The report – “No 32-04 \ vd” – is classified as secret. It says Trump is the “most promising candidate” from the Kremlin’s point of view. The word in Russian is perspektivny.”

Second, the Kremlin was very clear that Trump was mentally ill.

“There is a brief psychological assessment of Trump, who is described as an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex”.”

The benefit to Putin and Russia is obvious, a “mentally unstable” president who can be so easily manipulated because of his “inferiority complex” would dramatically weaken the United States and benefit Putin and his Oligarchy. 

Plus, remember that this sad little delusional man actually seems to think that he is going to be “reinstated” in the White House in August, and has created a pretend White House Rose Garden look for him to speak from a pretend presidential lectern on a golf course….good grief…..

Why the Trump Cult keeps drinking the Kool-Aid is something that I am tired of trying to figure out.  But these are the same folks who refuse vaccines in the midst of a world-wide pandemic, so I guess that sheds some light on the question.

Meanwhile back in the world of Climate Change...

Thank goodness, the Biden Administration has rolled back the terrible Trump destruction of the Tongas National Forest by stopping the cutting of old growth trees and stopping miles of logging roads.  We are experiencing terrible climate change now, not in the future, and this forest is a key player in pulling C02 from the atmosphere:

"Scientists have identified logging in Tongass as a future driver of planetary warming, because its ancient trees — many of which are at least three centuries old — absorb at least 8 percent of the carbon stored in the entire Lower 48 states’ forests combined."

The former administration, the Republican Party, and the logging industry discredits themselves when they so defile one of the oldest and most meaningful natural treasures of the planet.

Thank you, Mr. President. 

Restoring Capitalism

Trump and his cult are trying to convince themselves and the rest of us that Biden and the Democratic Party are socialists, which is remarkable nonsense.  The president has just signed an Executive Order to restore Capitalism - that is to restore competition - that is to restore the Free Market system back into America.

This is not Socialism. This is, Like Teddy Roosevelt, a strong move to reduce the monopoly and Trust powers of the super corporations which are anti-Capitalist - they are more like piracy.  Time to reign in today’s “Robber Barons”.  As the president said:

“I’m a proud capitalist,” Biden said. “I know America can’t succeed unless American business succeeds…. But let me be very clear: Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism; it’s exploitation. Without healthy competition, big players can change and charge whatever they want and treat you however they want…. “[W]e know we’ve got a problem—a major problem.  But we also have an incredible opportunity. We can bring back more competition to more of the country, helping entrepreneurs and small businesses get in the game, helping workers get a better deal, helping families save money every month. The good news is: We’ve done it before.” 

Free markets require laws and regulations that stop the powers of those who destroy Capitalism while they call themselves capitalists.  They are Oligarchs.  And they own the Republican Party.  And the Republican Party will do anything to keep the Oligarchs in power. The president is stepping in.

Time for the restoration of Capitalism.

Cult behavior in Trumpistan

Over 99% of COVID hospitalizations and deaths are unvaccinated people, mostly in Trumpistan states.  This is the same cult behavior where Jim Jones followers literally drank poisoned KoolAid and died - massive Darwinian moment. 

Two Sets of Books

Last week the Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Wiesselburg, was handcuffed and brought to court on the charge of a scheme for tax fraud and grand larceny by The Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, and the New York Attorney, Letitia James.  He did not do this to line his own pockets, of course, he did this at the direction of his long-time boss, Donald Trump.  He didn’t do it to steal from his boss, he did it to help his boss steal from the taxpayers. 

The biggest news of this story, however is that Wiesselburg kept two sets of books – the real and the fraudulent.

This is just the first in a long series of criminal charges to come against the long-time criminal and corrupt Trump organization - and Trump himself.  The criminal charges will just keep coming at the Trump Organization, the Trump children, and the former guy himself.  I hope they get to the Russian money laundering before they are through.

The former guy’s defense is, hey what the heck?  Everybody tries to avoid taxes, what’s the big deal?  Ask Al Capone who served 8 years of an 11 year Alcatraz prison sentence who was released to die of syphilis soon after.  Tax evasion is a criminal offense.  The CFO is facing death in prison.  Trump is clearly the author of the crime and his time is coming.

But, let’s say the former guy manages to escape prison for tax fraud.  What else might happen?  Banks.

As his long-time personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified under oath to Congress, his former boss was guilty of bank fraud as well as tax fraud.  Bank fraud?  Isn’t that a prison-able crime as well?  And what about the banks themselves?  Do you think they will want to see the two sets of books kept so carefully by the CFO? 

Maybe prison isn’t the only fate in store for the former guy.  Maybe the banks get to see the off the record books and call in their loans.  Trump doesn’t have hundreds of millions of dollars to pay of the massive loans outstanding.  He faces three bad outcomes for him – prison for bank fraud, bankruptcy, and loss of his adoring MAGA Cult worshipers who have long been fooled into believing he was very successful and very rich – no more Mr. President for the former guy.

Stay tuned for the entertainment as one of the dumbest criminals in history meets his fate.